50 TIPS for RESEARCH WORK:

1. Dont't panic too often
2. Only write on one side of the paper
3. Be nice to librarians - esp in inter-library loans
4. Remember that your supervisor is a busy person - if he/she isn't,
change your supervisor
5. Find out how you work best
6. Read your degree regulations
7. Always have a couple of things you can work on
8. Read some theses from your university in your area
9. Budget for typing and binding
10. Plan ahead
11. Photocopying is not the same as reading
12. Keep planning structures
13. Put your external's books on the bibliography
14. Get a good typist - or buy/use a word processor
15. Don't think it will be perfect...
16. read your supervisor's thesis
17. Be prepared to rewrite your early drafts
18. Write your introduction first; write the reader's last
19. Put conventions on cards for you and your typist
20. Keep full bibliographical details
21..Have someone comment on your style at an early stage
22. Set yourself short term goals...
23. and if you aren't meeting them, work out why
24. Allow plenty of time for writing up
25. Step back from time to time
26. Overdo footnotes at first, they're easy to take out
27. With each piece of work ask, "Is it worth doing this?"
28. Don't begrudge some time spent reading very widely
29. Find out early on about submission and presentation details
30. Talk to people about it
31. Think of it as a meal ticket
32. Keep writing..and writing..and writing..
33. Reading one more book won't solve all your problems
34. Buy a book on punctuation
35. Use your research to make contacts
36. Use a card index for references, etc
37. keep a research diary
38. Make sure your bibliography is comprehensive
39. If you set something aside for a while, make notes about how you
plan to continue with it
40. Using quotations doesn't make the idea more true
41. and you can usually write it better yourself
42. Don't begrudge time spent thinking
43. Label your diagrams properly
44. Find a typist who has done your sort of work before
45. Don't be afraid to be imaginative
46. Organise an efficient filing system
47. Remember that a thesis needs to have a thesis
48. It is very important to run out of excuses for not writing
49. The world is full of unfinished thesis
50. Remember, purple clashes horribly with lots of colour
51. Don't forget to drink a whole bottle of Tequila when you're done!